My personal website, www.chrisvogt.me, currently costs me $1.79 per month to keep online. If you include my personal email account, I spend $8.99 to maintain my online presence. Here's a breakdown of the costs:
| Service | Cost (Monthly) |
|---|---|
| Firebase & Google Cloud | $0.12 |
| Netlify | $0.00 (Free) |
| Imgix | $0.00 (Free) |
| Cloudinary | $0.00 (Free) |
| Google Workspace (Email) | $7.20 |
| Uptime Robot | $0.00 (Free) |
| SquareSpace (Domain Registration) | $1.67 |
| Codecov | $0.00 (Free) |
| Total Website Costs | $1.79 |
| Total Including Email | $8.99 |
Service Breakdown
Firebase & Google Cloud: These provide backend infrastructure including databases, auth, and serverless functions. Most of the $0.12 comes from Cloud Scheduler jobs, Cloud Storage, and minimal Cloud Function CPU time.
Netlify: Handles hosting, SSL, and DNS. I’m using ~1.5GB of bandwidth/month on the free tier.
Imgix & Cloudinary: Both serve optimized images—Imgix has 37 origin images; Cloudinary stores 228MB and delivers 5.3GB/month.
Google Workspace: My professional email provider—$7.20/month.
Uptime Robot: Free uptime monitoring and alerts.
SquareSpace: My domain registrar—$20/year (~$1.67/month).
Codecov: Free code coverage reporting for my open-source projects.
A Comment on Redundancy
Yes, I know I'm using multiple services for similar things. My website is a digital garden and my personal sandbox. I enjoy trying tools in real-world conditions. Over time, I’ll likely consolidate services down to my favorites.
I built the entire site by hand, including a Firebase-powered backing service behind a GatsbyJS frontend. It's incredible how affordable a full-featured, professional website can be these days with a bit of intention and resource management.
Originally published at chrisvogt.me
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